Thursday, 17 September 2009

Moving To St Ives Cornwall

I've had quite a few emails and forum postings recently from people wanting to move down here - as we did 10 years ago.

They often ask advice about jobs, schools and where to live, so I thought I'd repeat some of it here.

If anybody has anything to add please do comment below.

The first thing I will say is that we have never regretted moving here from Frome Somerset for one single moment. We absolutely love it here in St Ives. Its a great place to live and a great community.

Like many others - we used to take regular holidays here and it felt more like home than home did (hope that makes sense!). Before we moved we asked many people how it was to live here and they pretty much all answered as above - no regrets.

Jobs In St Ives and Cornwall

There is absolutely no shortage of work - at least here in St Ives - even outside the holiday season. The problem is that most are low paid minimum wage jobs, mostly in the tourist industry. No problem with that in itself of course, but if you've got mortgage / rent to pay then it does become a practical problem. Many people I know in St Ives solve this by having two or more jobs. If you happen to have a "transferable" profession like teaching you might find it easier, but good jobs advertised in Cornwall do tend to have a lot of applicants.

Another solution - which we and many others here have chosen - is to be self employed. Not easy, risky but hugely rewarding. I could write a whole separate article on that. I know several people who have built successful businesses from scratch here.

I spent a lot of time working upcountry when we first moved here - tough but worth it. If you do the same you won't be the only one - you'll soon start recognising familiar faces on the Friday night Air Southwest flight into Newquay.

None of this is meant to be negative - just realistic. What it comes down to is how determined you are. We both agreed that if necessary we'd take jobs cleaning toilets if it came down to it - in fact in one tough spell Jo actually did!

Schools

Generally pretty good here and across Cornwall, not perfect but probably better than average for the UK. I've only heard good things about St Ives Infants and Junior schools. As far as I know St Ives Secondary School is ok, although I've had mixed reports. I think it depends whether your children are arts or science / technology focussed. St Ives is a technology college, my daughter went to Cape Cornwall which is an arts college.

I spoke to a local estate agent this morning who described the property market here as "buoyant" with plenty of property available. As far as I can see prices have dropped a bit here, but St Ives is still not cheap compared to other local towns.

There does seem to be a fair bit of property to rent if that's an option for you. Any local agent will be happy to advise you.

5 comments:

Love the article. We have been holidaying in st ives for the last fews years and absolutely love the place, as you say we feel more at home there than we do at home. We have also talked about moving there, the main concern being work, we will be there again for 2 weeks from the 11th sept and will be looking into possible work in the area and housing, it would be a dream come true to live there and such a lovely place to raise our 2 young children.

A really great post and I totally get what you mean about 'it felt like you had come home' when you used to holiday in St Ives. I have holidayed in St Ives since I was a child, now I bring both my children to this beautiful place. I was last down 3 or 4 weeks ago now and I can't stop pining for St Ives. We have friends in Phillack and relatives in St Ives. The ONLY thing that has stopped any potential move previously has been the prospect of securing work. Your post and some ideas of roles I can actually do at home with some adjustments, moving there seems more of a reality. Here's hoping!